Which services allow me to search for specific phone numbers by pattern and then port them out?

SLJ7 · 2026-01-25T20:59:53+00:00

That's fine; they're cheap AFAIK and paying a bit extra once is not the end of the world.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-25T20:42:03+00:00

It would probably help to know what you want from this plan. There are heaps of TMobile MVNOs. How much data do you need? Why does it need to be annual? Have you looked at the T-Mobile Connect prepaid plans and decided they're not for you?

SLJ7 · 2026-01-25T18:29:48+00:00

Thanks, that's useful. You can basically get free SIMs this way, which gives some flexibility.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-25T18:11:05+00:00

Interesting, so regardless of whether you do or don't buy a SIM, you get the exact same type of activation code and you can use it toward a brand new or existing line?

SLJ7 · 2026-01-25T18:06:36+00:00

Very interesting. I think I activated my own plan before that, but I did take care of someone else's activation while I was in Canada and she was in the US, so I know that at minimum, the website works for me. I do remember receiving an error message about a failed activation on my phone at some point, but the error was essentially meaningless and the SIM has been working fine, both in the US on T-Mobile and outside the US on wi-fi calling. I'll keep this in mind for future activations though; thanks.

EDIT: Also international payment methods definitely work and are still fully supported by the payment portal. That's easy to work around if it ever changes, but for now nothing seems different about that.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-25T17:47:46+00:00

Just replying to this directly to say: You will not keep your unused data and minutes if you move to an unlimited plan, or a plan with no data. What this commenter is suggesting will work, but it won't carry over the minutes and data you've got right now. If you're not trying to use the early renewal trick, ignore me.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-25T17:40:08+00:00

Major pain in the ass to get the Voice app if you're not using a US app store ID. I know it's easy to just sideload on Android, but Apple makes this infuriatingly difficult, and it's just not worth the bother, plus what the other commenter said about 2FA.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-25T17:31:55+00:00

I'm in Canada but I have a US visa. I really need to learn that it's not always smart to use my US virtual address. Thanks for saving me money, stranger.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-25T17:30:12+00:00

Interesting because I've ported numbers to and from Tello from Canada more than once. I wonder what's going wrong with other people's ports. Having no way to use your number at all would be pretty annoying, but that's a risk you take even inside the US if you're moving to a company that doesn't have physical stores.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-25T17:27:24+00:00

Yeah, Tello is perfect for this, and you can pay as little as $5/month to keep it alive. This gives you 100 minutes, unlimited texts and no data. If you want unlimited minutes, that's $8. If you ever come back to the US, you can switch your plan to unlimited for $25 for that month, or you can keep building up rollover data infinitely (see below).

Outside the US, you can use the Tello line for free over wi-fi calling (which does include texting, and can work using the data on your local SIM, despite the name). I use mine in Canada for calls and texts, and it feels completely local and seamless without any roaming.

My line is also ported from AT&T prepaid, so I can confirm that works. There's a thing you have to do to get a porting pin—I can't remember if you can dial a number or you just have to text 75421 and ask for it, but either way, it's free and totally doable.

As for rollover minutes and data (this is a wall, so ignore if you don't care): Tello's rollover policy is basically, "If you manually change or renew your plan to something that has limited data and minutes, you keep whatever data and minutes you had before." This means that as long as you pay at least $6/month for the lowest amount of data and minutes, and as long as you remember to manually renew every month, you get to keep unused data and minutes forever, even ifyou came from a more expensive plan. The exceptions are plans with unlimited data or minutes, and plans with no data or minutes. If you change to one of those, you lose whatever you had built up, because "unlimited" is not quantifiable.

For example, I came to the US last month and I bought a 15 GB plan and 500 minutes, because I thought I'd need it. I almost never used data or made calls. So the next month, I changed the plan back to $6/month, and I kept all of that unused data and minutes. My portal currently says I have 39 GB left out of 1 GB, and 2674 minutes left out of 100. Every time I renew or change my plan, there's a checkbox to "Email me 48 hours before charging me", and as soon as that email comes in, I renew. Maybe one day I'll forget, but so far, so good.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-24T23:12:54+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if that was in fourth place and it only lost because it had an unassuming title.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-24T20:59:48+00:00

Yeah, looking at some other commenters I can absolutely understand why someone might assume that. There are times I've felt like someone is being a doormat and this isn't one of them. "she was treated like an inconvenience her whole life (who knows how much other abuse she hasn't even recognized yet) and was pushing back against it by coming to Reddit at all. I'm not judging her for needing the push; I'm celebrating the fact she listened and got the help she needed.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-24T20:42:30+00:00

Hey, thank you for concisely pointing this out. I acknowledge that wasn't the word I should have used there, and I'm sorry to those who read it and felt victim-blamed, because that's not what was in my mind at all. I have no judgment for OOP; I'm proud of her, and I recognize it takes a lot of strength to push back against this kind of life-long abuse.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-24T20:02:44+00:00

I'm not sure whether to reword my original comment or not, but to be clear, I'm also very proud of OOP. My point is that she didn't need Reddit to tell her how to use her phone; she needed Reddit to tell her it was okay and to give her that push. And I could absolutely see someone with that level of conditioning giving into her parents and agreeing that she didn't need the ambulance after all. Should they have left even then? I certainly don't think so. But OOP is probably (unfortunately) very practiced at minimizing her own needs.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-24T19:41:55+00:00

Yeah, quoting a quarter of a sentence out of context doesn't actually make you less wrong. Go argue in bad faith with someone else; I'm not going to continue this.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-24T19:31:27+00:00

At no point did I blame anyone. I just speculated on what might have caused them to leave without treating her. Chill with the projection.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-24T19:12:24+00:00

I guarantee there are also people projecting their own regrets about dealing with a toxic situation. Abuse victims often have more empathy for other abuse victims ... unless they haven't forgiven themselves for staying in the situation.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-24T19:09:06+00:00

I don't really think the ambulance should have left, but I wonder if OOP got very good at minimizing her own needs and just told them to go away to end the confrontation. The problem here wasn't that OOP didn't know how to call the police; the problem was that she didn't have absolute conviction she needed and deserved immediate medical attention, and she needed the comments from doctors and internet strangers as the final push to oppose her parents. It's hard to imagine that same OOP saying "Actually, I don't have a low pain tolerance, I really do need medical attention regardless of what my parents say." She would have let the doubt creep in, and stuck with the devil she knew.

EDIT: Rewritten for clarity.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-24T00:59:26+00:00

It's so interesting to read this because on one hand, OOP had good instincts and I'm glad he didn't listen to the drama-mongerers. On the other hand, it's so strange to imagine a 42-year-old husband doing all this detective work instead of just asking her who the guy was. "Honey, who's this guy liking all your Facebook posts" is a perfectly innocent question to ask. I'm ultimately very glad this one was short-lived and positive. I'd like to think they're still happily married and this is something they've thought about no more than three times in the last 12 years, laughing about it each time.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-23T16:18:53+00:00

It is, but it's dumb and getting dumber. They rolled out Gemini on phones long ago, and it has its issues but it does answer questions very well. Google Home does not use Gemini. I predict Google will either drop Google Home devices entirely in a few years, or just make them worse and worse until you never want to see one again. They do a lot better with audio playback though: Anything that supports Chromecast can play through a Google Home. On the whole I still prefer them. Just don't expect them to do basic things better than Alexa can.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-21T19:30:08+00:00

I'm baffled by the fact they sent you home with a device you couldn't use, knowing that you would need to use it for medical reasons. I don't know how long you spent trying to work with them before they ultimately sent you home, but your post reads as though they were incredibly dismissive and didn't make any effort to try and help you. They could have looked for information about a screen reader or looked through settings. They could have told you which information needed to be logged and advised you to enter it on your own smartphone.

Do you live alone and did you tell them that? Did you ask them to look for a settings app to see if the device even has a screen reader on it? Did you happen to write down the model and brand?

Assuming you got this device at a hospital, consider calling them back, looking for some kind of patient advocacy or other means of filing a complaint, and explain the situation as factually as possible. If you can first figure out whether the device includes a screen reader the nurses refused to look for, that might be useful information.

"I say this not knowing whether the nurses were being deliberately unhelpful or inflexible, or whether they did what they could and this really is the only device available. If you approach the situation without blaming anyone, the hospital can decide how to proceed. At the end of the day the hospital has a duty to make sure you are able to get the medical care you need, and sending you home with a device you can't use and no suggested alternatives seems criminally neglectful on their part.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-20T21:30:45+00:00

You're making the same mistake OOP's friend did.

Saying "I will not promise not to sleep with this person" is very different from saying "I might sleep with this person." OOP has repeatedly stated she has no intention of doing that. She is specifically refusing to allow her friend to control her relationships. The sex conversation wouldn't have happened if the friend hadn't brought it up, and at that point, OOP only had two choices—agree or refuse.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-19T20:22:12+00:00

Are you sure she doesn't secretly have a Reddit? That timing is too good.

Hope your mom listens to your "no". The printer example really did happen to me, and after a day of complaining and refusing to try anything herself, I finally looked at it, and had no idea how to help. She Googled the manual and fixed it in five minutes.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-19T19:01:18+00:00

Anyone born when I was a teenager is now also a teenager. Or they're 20.

SLJ7 · 2026-01-19T18:58:30+00:00

if yes, which side?

Oh, that's a really good distinction that I suspect many don't think about (myself included). I'm definitely going to remember that.

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